Last week, we broke down LaAdrian Waddle's debut after the Detroit Lions rookie offensive tackle was pressed into action because of injuries to Jason Fox, Corey Hilliard and Riley Reiff.

Waddle played 43 snaps against the Cincinnati Bengals, splitting time between the left and right side. The performance was up and down, but given all the factors playing into the day, that was hardly unexpected.

With Hilliard out and Fox active, but still banged up, Waddle earned the start at right tackle against the Dallas Cowboys this week.

To say it was a better performance would be an understatement.

Waddle was on the field for 79 snaps, briefly leaving the contest for one play in the fourth quarter for an unknown reason. On those 79 snaps, Detroit dropped back to pass 50 times and ran (or spiked) the ball 29 plays.

Waddle was exceptional in pass protection, allowing two quarterback pressures and one hit.

On the hit, at the end of the first half, Waddle was caught off guard when his assignment on the play, defensive tackle Nick Hayden, dropped back in coverage. Waddle reacted slowly when switching to defensive end George Selvie, coming off the edge.

Selvie came into the game with five sacks, but beyond the aforementioned pop on Stafford, he was stonewalled by Waddle the rest of the day. Jarius Wynn, who rotated in at left defensive end, also struggled to get any traction against the rookie tackle.

In the ground game, the Lions didn't run ball to the right side often, but when they did, Waddle did an excellent job sealing defenders outside of the lanes as illustrated in the two screen shots below.

Additionally, there was a play early in the first quarter, where Waddle broke off a double-team on Jason Hatcher and drove 250-pound linebacker Bruce Carter back seven yards.

Overall, we graded Waddle negatively on just three of the 79 snaps and only one of those plays had a negative outcome for the Lions. That's a significant improvement from the previous week, when we graded him positively on 35 of his 43 snaps.

The Detroit Lions right tackle situation will be an interesting situation to keep an eye on going forward.

Fox won the job during training camp and the preseason, but he hasn't been able to stay healthy. Hilliard had done admirably in the role until he also went down with a knee injury. Now Waddle is proving he deserves to be in the mix when the Lions travel to Chicago to face the Bears after the bye.